UPDATE: “Michael Sindoni will remain the executive chef at CBD Provisions,” Headington Co. president Michael Tregoning said via email. As for whether Grasslands will be opening later this year as planned and whether Greg Bussey and Matt Ford will stay on the project, Tregoning said, “It’s too early to tell. We have great respect for chefs Greg Bussey and Matt Ford and hope to utilize their extraordinary talents on-site.” The same goes, he said, for Tim Bevins and the Front Room.

UPDATE: In a phone interview, Tristan Simon addressed the question of why Consilient Restaurants Holdings is no longer managing the Joule Hotel and the Front Room at the Lumen Hotel. “Ultimately we were unable to find a business structure that worked for both Headington and Consilient,” he said, “so a decision was made to shift focus to Consilient’s independent restaurant business and expansion brands.” There are currently no plans for any of the four chefs involved — Sindoni, Bussey, Ford and Bevins — to move over to Consilient. Of course any of that could change; I’m guessing it will take some time for it all to play out. I’m waiting to hear back from the Headington Companies spokesperson for more.

Headington Companies, which owns the Joule Hotel and the Lumen Hotel, has announced that Consilient Restaurant Holdings will no longer operate or manage any aspects of those properties, including the restaurants. That means that CBD Provisions and the Front Room will no longer be run by Consilient.

Headington still maintains, according to a statement press release offered exclusively to the Dallas Morning News, “a significant financial investment in Consilient Restaurant Holdings with founder Tristan Simon at the helm.”

The release quotes Headington president Michael Tregoning as saying, “We are very pleased with CBD Provisions, which has helped make Main Street a destination for great food in a unique environment. We remain significantly invested in Consilient and, under the leadership of Tristan Simon, we expect the company to succeed.”

With executive chef Michael Sindoni in charge of the kitchen, CBD Provisions earned four stars in a review in December, and was named The Best in DFW: New Restaurant of the Year. Consilient has been developing Grasslands, the ambitious, dinner-only, produce-forward restaurant it planned to open later this year, for many months, with Greg Bussey and Matt Ford as co-executive chefs. Consilient has also been redeveloping the Front Room at the Lumen Hotel, with Tim Bevins as executive chef.

“Playing a role in the expansion of the Joule and working on the Front Room was a rewarding experience, and we are grateful to Headington Companies for the opportunity” the release quotes Simon as saying. “Above all else, we are incredibly proud of CBD Provisions for the Joule.”

There are a few unknowns: Will Sindoni stay on at CBD Provisions or move over to the Consilient fold? Prior to the opening of CBD, he was executive chef at Charlie Palmer at the Joule. Will the Grasslands project continue as planned, and if so, will Bussey and Ford stay on as co-executive chefs, or will they stay with Consilient? And what are the plans for the Front Room and Bevins? And finally, what was the reason for the breach?

I have calls and emails out to a spokesperson for Headington Companies and to Tristan Simon, and will post an update as soon as I learn more.
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Greg Bussey (left) and Matt Ford, shown tossing a salad from Comeback Creek Farm, will be co-executive chefs at Grasslands

The rest of the country has finally taken notice of Dallas’ dynamic dining scene, and for good reason: A number of incredibly exciting restaurants have opened in the last couple years, including FT33, Casa Rubia, CBD Provisions in the Joule Hotel and AF+B in Fort Worth. The latter two, both from Consilient Hospitality, are turning out some of the best and most forward-looking Modern Texan Cuisine in the state.

But Consilient has something even more ambitious in the works with the restaurant it plans to open this fall in the Joule: Grasslands. More formal than CBD Provisions, the dinner-only restaurant — in the former Charlie Palmer space — will put Modern Texas Cuisine in the spotlight. ”It’s a restaurant that really engages modern Texas cooking in a very broad way,” says Consilient founder Tristan Simon. “It should be our magnum opus in that regard.” It will be headed by chefs Greg Bussey and Matt Ford, who will run the kitchen together as co-executive chefs.

Central to the vision for Grasslands is a commitment to Texas produce. Part of what has made Consilient’s brand of Modern Texan cooking stand out up to this point is its impeccable sourcing of meats. But one thing holding the whole genre — all of Modern Texas Cuisine — back has been the difficulty of sourcing great produce. Partly this is due to the vagaries of our local growing season. But the relationship — or lack thereof — between restaurants and farms has been part of the problem, too. Unlike in places like California and New York, where chefs have relationships with farmers who custom-grow produce for them, the connection between chefs and farms in Texas has never been fully developed. For all the farm-to-table, local-sourcing talk around town, in practice, this kind of sourcing is very difficult to do, according to Simon. “There is a really big disconnect between the extent to which restaurants in the area represent themselves in sourcing locally and the extent to which they do,” he says. “Any rest that is trying to do that experiences never-ending frustration in that regard.”

For Grasslands, Consilient has formed exclusive partnerships with Comeback Creek Farm in Pittsburg, Texas and with Cartermere Farm, a start-up organic farm in Celina, Texas. The crops these farms will be producing — custom-grown for Grasslands — will be central to the restaurant’s mission. “The exclusive farm relationships supporting the restaurant are really going to be defining of the menu,” explains Simon, “both in terms of driving the ideation and in terms of a lot of the crops that will be produced on those farms.” The heirloom and exotic varieties are “what will give the Grasslands menu a lot of its depth.” Simon adds, “The story that the Grasslands menu will tell will often be about the interesting bounty of produce coming from these farms. The dishes are going to be more produce-driven and lighter, cleaner and more healthful.” The farms will supply Consilient’s other restaurants, as well.

As for the meats, he says, “Grasslands is going to have a wholesale commitment to grass-fed beef and heritage meats. We won’t use a commodity meat of any kind.”

Contributing to the design of the restaurant will be a “composite of art installations from half a dozen different artists who are collaborating to create the environment.” One is James Carpenter. Among his past projects are 7 World Trade Center and the Time Warner Center in New York, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. He’s creating a “beautiful glass canopy that’s going to sit over the patio of Grasslands,” says Simon. “It is very significant in terms of being public art.” Sean Springer, a local wood artist, will be creating furniture for the restaurant, and an East Texas ceramist will be making table top pieces. All this, says Simon, “will evoke the grasslands in terms of its materiality and its narrative in a way that’s modern and artistic.”

And here’s another unusual feature: Grasslands staff — all staff — will be required to serve short apprenticeships at Comeback Creek Farm. “They’ll have to spend some time planting or harvesting,” says Simon, “just really understanding with their own eyes and hands where the products come from.” Chefs Bussey and Ford will have much deeper involvement. By the time the restaurant opens, “they’ll have done a full year of work with our farm partners.”

Some background on the chefs: You may remember Bussey from Victor Tangos (another Consilient restaurant). Ford, according to Simon, is “a young chef who came up as a protegé of Tim Bevins and Jeff Harris.” (Harris is executive chef at AF+B; Bevins is executive chef at Front Room, the Consilient restaurant-in-the-works at the Lumen hotel.)

Meanwhile, Consilient is earnestly shooting for a fall opening. “Shooting is definitely the operative term,” says Simon. “We’d like to catch the fall produce and not open in winter,” though he adds that there will probably be enough greenhouse produce and winter vegetables to get them through if that comes to pass. “But definitely shooting for fall.”

Over the holidays, several blogsreported that Hotel Palomar would be closing its restaurant, Central 214, after the first of the year and that John Tesar plans to open a modern steakhouse there called Knife. I’ve been trying to confirm the story since last Thursday, and only just succeeded in tying up all the ends after speaking with Mike DeFrino, chief operating officer at Kimpton in San Francisco (Kimpton manages Hotel Palomar) and Jeffrey Burns, director of hotel operations at Behringer Harvard (the investment firm that owns Hotel Palomar), as well as chef Tesar.

Central 214 is still open and serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, but Tesar has indeed signed a deal with Behinger Harvard to take over the space and open Knife, a modern steakhouse there, according to Burns and DiFrino. They plan to close briefly in the near future for renovations and hope to open Knife on April 1.

“I feel a great pressure to make it something special and different,” says Tesar, whose 14-month-old Preston Center seafood restaurant, Spoon Bar and Kitchen, was recently purchased by Chanticleer Holdings. Knife may play off of Spoon’s name, but Tesar says his deal with Palomar is completely independent of his deal with Chanticleer.

Tesar says his new place will go beyond steakhouse to be “more of a meat restaurant,” just as “Spoon is a fish restaurant.” If you’re looking for the “usual suspects,” he says — you know, a rib-eye, sirloin or filet mignon, those will be on the menu, but “we’ll also have pork and veal.” There will be “a lot of braising and a lot of grass-fed, maybe some whole birds. I’m curing my own pastrami now.” And if you do want that rib-eye or filet mignon, “It’s going to be the best you can get,” says Tesar.

Beyond that, the chef says there will be an important social interaction element to the restaurant, and that he’ll be using the larger parts of animals. “I love that Tristan’s new place [CBD Provisions, which, like Hibiscus, is owned by Tristan Simon and Tim Headington's Consilient Hospitality] uses the whole pig’s head.” Tesar plans “things along that line — that are more social, family-style, interactive, maybe more affordable. Things of that nature are more fun and interactive.”

When it was announced that Chanticleer purchased Spoon, Tesar emphasized that he’d continue to run the restaurant as executive chef. He plans to hire a chef to run Knife and handle the catering, banquet operations and room service for Hotel Palomar. “Spoon is where I will be,” he says. However, he plans to spend time at the new restaurant to help it “progressing forward.”

Says Behringer Harvard’s Burns: “Hotel restaurants are tricky. Look at all the ones that have come and gone. You have to strike a unique balance: access to the community, but also complementing the many people who check into your hotel every day.” But he expresses complete confidence in Tesar. “We’ve given him full reign over design, full reign over the chef he’ll hire.”

Interesting footnote: Central 214 lost its chef, Graham Dodds, to Consilient Hospitality in September. Dodds is now co-chef, with Jason Ferraro, at Hibiscus.

Original post: There was a transformer fire under the Main Street sidewalk in front of the Joule hotel last night, as Robert Wilonsky reports on the Scoop blog. Tristan Simon, CEO of Consilient Hospitality, which manages the hotel and owns CBD Provisions, the new restaurant there, sent the following update via email: ”Very little damage was done to the hotel, but as a result of proximity to the fire the restaurant CBD Provisions incurred minor glass and smoke damage to its exterior; and the restaurant will be closed briefly for cleaning and repairs. We appreciate the swift response of Dallas Police & Fire and Oncor in their successful effort to quickly extinguish the fire and prevent meaningful damage to CBD Provisions and The Joule Hotel.”

Laurel Wimberg's Texas grapefruit tart will be on the opening menu at AF+B

Consilient Hospitality, which opened CBD Provisions in the Joule Hotel in October, is poised to open AF+B, an American tavern, in Fort Worth on January 10. (The debut had previously been planned for this month.) With Jeff Harris already on board as executive chef, Consilient founder and CEO Tristan Simon has just informed me that Laurel Wimberg will be pastry chef.

The collaboration of Harris and Wimberg will be a reunion, as the two worked together at the erstwhile Craft Dallas, where Wimberg was pastry chef from 2009 to 2012. Wimberg’s desserts there, such as a huckleberry crisp with Meyer lemon ice cream or red currant creme brûlée with semolina pine nut cookes, earned a place among the Best in DFW: Desserts in 2011. More recently, Wimberg served briefly as pastry chef at Lark on the Park. The Texas grapefruit tart with a poppyseed crumb crust pictured here will be on AF+B’s opening menu.

Talented pastry chefs are a rare commodity in North Texas. When I interviewed Simon in late October, he told me he’d been looking to hire a new pastry chef at Hibiscus for four or five months; he still hasn’t found one, he says — “Still interviewing, mostly candidates from outside the market.”

Meanwhile, Consilient, which had planned to close Front Room, the restaurant at the Lumen hotel, for a redesign in December, with the idea of reopening in January, has pushed back that date as well. They now plan to remodel in February.

One of the wonderful things about the Dallas dining scene is how dynamic it is and has been — especially in the last few years. It has been quite an amazing — and rapid — evolution. At the moment, the city is in the throes of major seismic changes. By this time next year the scene is likely to look very different indeed.

Consilient Hospitality

Consilient's Hospitality's Tristan Simon

That’s largely thanks to Consilient Hospitality. Besides having opened high-profile CBD Provisions earlier this month, the restaurant and hotel management group, led by dining visionary Tristan Simon (who partnered last year with the Headington Companies), has been snapping up the city’s most talented and accomplished chefs at a rate that makes a food lover’s head spin. Over the past year, Consilient has hired Jeff Harris (a two-time The Best in DFW Chef who earned four stars at Bolsa and at Craft Dallas); Jeffery Hobbs (who helped earn four stars at Sissy’s Southern Kitchen and Bar); Tim Bevins (Craft Dallas, Rick’s Chophouse); Graham Dodds (Central 214, Bolsa); Michael Ehlert (The Chesterfield, Campo Modern Country Bistro) and pastry chef Alison Morse (Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck). That’s an incredible pool of culinary talent.

This morning, Consilient announced that Harris would head the kitchen at AF+B, the American tavern it plans to open in Fort Worth in December. Shortly after the announcement, I asked Simon in a phone interview whether he’s planning to take over the world. “I think Jeff will be the last of the big announcements of that kind for a while,” he said. He explained that Harris’ approach to cooking very much epitomizes Consilient’s food philosophy: “Keep it simple, keep it focused, keep the number of moving parts on the dish fairly limited, and just let the quality of the cooking speak for itself.” The goal of AF+B, says Simon, “is to elevate American tavern cooking in a way that we think of as modern.” Harris has also done reasonably high-volume cooking, essential at AF+B, which will have 180 seats. Harris replaces Hobbs, who left the company in August.

Earlier this year Consilient snatched Bevins, who had been working as executive chef at Rick’s Chophouse in McKinney, to head Front Room, the restaurant at the Lumen hotel. Bevins wasn’t making much of an impression at Rick’s (on this critic, anyway), but he definitely did at Craft Dallas, where he headed the kitchen just before it closed. Joining Bevins at Front Room as chef de cuisine is Ehlert, whom Simons as brought over from Hibiscus. Ehlert made his Dallas debut last year at the Chesterfield, where his sophisticated cooking helped the short-lived bar earn three stars; previously he had been executive sous chef at Daniel Boulud’s DBGB in New York. After serving briefly as executive chef at the erstwhile Campo Modern Country Bistro, Ehlert was snagged by Consilient for the Hibiscus kitchen at Hibiscus. Until recently he was part of the team there headed by chef Jason Ferraro. Hibiscus earned four stars in a review July.

Over the past few months, Consilient has been rethinking Front Room, and Simon is now looking at a more involved redesign than he’d originally envisioned. To that end, he plans to close the restaurant for a remodel in December and reopen shortly after the new year with a completely different feel than its current mid-century modern style: “purely modern, sophisticated, with a modern artisan furnishings theme that accords nicely with Tim’s cooking.” December is a slow time, he says; best to make the changes then. In the interim, a temporary dining room will be set up for the hotel, which will continue providing in-room dining and banquets.

What’s being planned for Front Room is somewhat unusual, says Simon. Breakfast, lunch, brunch and in-room dining will be pretty straightforward, in line with what Bevins has been serving lately. But at dinner, “a very different restaurant will emerge — one that is more ambitious, more truly chef-driven, more reservation-based, more destination-based.” And with a completely new menu, naturally. Bevins, who eats vegan “90 percent of the time,” has been “feverishly working to develop that new menu vision,” Simon adds. “He is so vegetable-oriented, and he cooks with such a clean and precise hand, he’s able to tease out flavors — particularly with vegetables — that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before. His commitment to pure, clean flavors is really going to define that menu.”

As for his decision to bring Ehlert on board, Simons saw a good fit in partnering him with Bevins; the two have cooked together on six or seven occasions. “They just lined up,” says Simon, similar to the way Ferraro and Dodds have lined up as co-chefs at Hibiscus.

Until recently, it was fairly unusual to see restaurants run by co-chefs, but for Consilient, such teamwork makes sense. “I think increasingly what we’re seeing is we get the most spectacular results from these kitchens if we can create teams. Tim will direct, but we think he and Michael will create a very special chemistry. They investigate the potential of dishes in the same way.” Ehlert’s experience working with Boulud, says Simon, gave him organizational skills in the kitchen that are very important to Bevins — “and that very precise technique — super-precision cooking.”

Speaking of Hibiscus, Consilient recently hired Dodds away from Central 214, where he had been executive chef, to head up Hibiscus’ kitchen jointly with Ferraro. The restaurant’s handling of meats has been very impressive under Ferraro’s leadership (it certainly went a long way in earning the restaurant four stars); Simon brought Dodds on to help elevate the vegetable part of the equation. Vegetable sourcing, says Simon, is somewhat complicated in Dallas. “You have to cobble together a lot of those relationships, and Graham has them. We’re now really focused on changing the vegetables and some of the fish. I think we’re going to maintain that team for a while, and I think the restaurant is going to take another step forward as a result.”

And what about the sweet side of Hibiscus, which I wrote in my review needs a serious makeover (“the seasonality, freshness and lovely simplicity of the savory courses tend to go missing on the sweet side,” I wrote). For the past four or five months, Simon has been in the process of interviewing for a new pastry chef — which he says has been a challenge in Dallas. “The pastry chef community in Dallas is a little shallow if you don’t want to do really retro,” he says. Therefore, Consilient has started seeking pastry chefs from outside North Texas. He has just hired a pastry chef for Front Room — Alison Morse, a New Jersey native who he says came up through the ranks at Wolfgang Puck’s organization. She was head pastry chef at Fornelletto at Borgata Casino and Hotel at Atlantic City, and most recently was on the pastry team at Five Sixty here in Dallas. Today at Hibiscus, Consilient doing a tasting with a prospective pastry chef; Simon is eager for a hire to happen soon. “It’s a little painful every time a two-pound chocolate cake comes out of the kitchen right now,” he says.

Meanwhile, he’s also excited about Victor Tangos, where Kirsten Brewer took over as chef late last year. “She owns that menu now,” he says, adding that she changes it up frequently. “She’s a talent.” Victor Tangos was included in the list of The Best in DFW Gastropubs earlier this year.

As for taking over Dallas’ culinary world, that’s not the way Simon describes his mission. Rather, it’s creating a community of chefs that’s dedicated to sourcing and cooking in a way that expresses the company’s culinary philosophy, which he calls an “essentialist approach.”

Consilient Hospitality will open a new restaurant in 2014 in the Charlie Palmer at the Joule space

UPDATE: Consilient Hospitality spokesperson Brooke Hortenstine just contacted me to say that the information she had provided us this morning included erroneous information. In fact today is the last day for Charlie Palmer at the Joule. It will reopen tomorrow as the Joule Restaurant, with the same menu in place. The date it will close to begin renovations for the new restaurant is up in the air.

ORIGINAL POST: Well, the guessing game Dallas’ dining cognoscenti have been playing for more than a year is officially solved: Charlie Palmer at the Joule will close tomorrow on Oct. 9, and it will not be replaced by Charlie Palmer Steak, as had originally been the plan. Instead, the ex-Charlie Palmer space will make way for a new restaurant from Consilient Hospitality, the Tristan Simon-Tim Headington partnership that manages operations for the Joule Hotel and Shops Dallas. Details, such as chef and concept, have not yet been announced; Consilient plans to open the new establishment in 2014. Once Charlie Palmer closes, work will begin immediately, as part of the Joule’s two-year, multi-phase expansion. Consilient also owns a slew of restaurants on Henderson Ave. and operates Front Room at the Lumen, where reconcepting plans are in the works.

Jonathan Zizzo/Special Contributor

Michael Sindoni, executive chef at CBD Provisions

Can’t wait? Well, Consilient plans to open the doors of CBD Provisions, an “urban brasserie” that will serve “progressive, Texas-centered cuisine,” next month — on October 10. Michael Sindoni (who had been tapped to be executive chef for the ill-fated Charlie Palmer Steakhouse) will be executive chef. Recently, Sindoni has been running the kitchen at Charlie Palmer at the Joule. CBD Provisions will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, along with brunch on weekends.

On Friday I mentioned in a post about hotel dining in Dallas that Tim Bevins, the new chef at the Front Room: A Park Cities Diner (in the Lumen hotel), doesn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to introduce his new menu. A note from Tristan Simon made clear the reason: Consilient Restaurants, which Simon owns with Tim Headington, took over management of the restaurant (along with food and beverage operations for the Lumen) last week. The plan, wrote Simon, is to evolve the Front Room “into a modern neighborhood bistro built around the honest, local ingredient based cooking of Tim Bevins.”

As a restaurant critic, I’m probably more addicted to the excitement of checking out new restaurants than most other people are. As a fan of evolution, my second biggest kick, perhaps, is checking out the cooking of new chefs when they take over the kitchens of restaurants I like. I was impressed with Bevins’ cooking at Craft Dallas just before it closed, and the Front Room is a very likeable place, so this is a promising match-up. I will patiently look forward to experiencing Bevins’ new menu, and Consilient’s new vision for the restaurant.

Downtown’s rejuvenation continues at the Joule, where Weekend Coffee has opened. The shop, which features single-origin brews and cold brews made with beans from Seattle-based Victrola Coffee Roasters, also has a La Marzocco espresso machine. No grandes and ventis here — coffee drinks, many of which are available iced, are available in one size only. Want a nibble? Sweet and savory snacks baked by Joule chef Ruban Torano change daily. Lately cheddar-and-egg gougères, s’more scones, strawberry-coconut-lemon zest muffins and mango-passion fruit pop tarts have been among the offerings.

For later this summer, Consilient Restaurants has plans to open CBD Provisions, an American brasserie, at the Joule. Aug. 13 is the target date. Michael Sindoni, who’s currently in charge of the kitchen at Charlie Palmer at the Joule, will be executive chef.

Consilient is also on track, according to Tristan Simon (who owns the restaurant group with Tim Headington), to open American F + B in Fort Worth on October 15. Executive chef there will be Jeffery Hobbs. You may remember Hobbs from Sissy’s Southern Kitchen and Bar, where he was executive chef until last fall.

I just learned that last spring, he also became a co-owner of Consilient Restaurants, the group founded by Tristan Simon (who’s also CEO and co-owner) that owns restaurants including Victor Tango’s, Fireside Pies and Hibiscus. Simon explained in an email that in May, he recapitalized Consilient, Headington bought out his former partners, and “today only he and I own the company.” Headington is #172 on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans, published last month.

Simon says that 2013 will be an active year for “Consilient hatchings.” We’ll keep you posted on developments as we learn about them.